Sample Apa Paper

Full Title of Paper

Your Name

Harding University

Abstract

The Abstract is a summary of the paper, not an intro. The reader should be able to read the Abstract and get a good idea of what the paper is about and the conclusion you drew. It is written in block form without the first line indented and should be 150 or less in length. The entire paper should be in Times New Roman 12 font, double spaced with no extra spaces between sections, headers and text, paragraphs, etc. Go to the Home tab of Word and click on Paragraph. Under Paragraph, choose 0 under the Spacing section. Choose Double Space under Line Spacing and First Line under Special. Again, the first line of the Abstract should not be indented, but the rest of the paragraphs in the paper should be.

Full Title of the Paper

For this section you will need to decide on a thesis statement for the paper. This is a general statement about your topic that shows your approach and point of view. It is an introduction and shows how the entire paper fits together. The length will vary, but should be at least a few paragraphs with new ideas in each paragraph

Level 1 Heading

Here is where you start the body of your paper. Tie it in with the previous section to make sure the paper flows well. Break your ideas into paragraphs, one idea per paragraph. Long paragraphs are difficult to follow, especially if they contain multiple ideas. The first sentence of each paragraph should give the general idea and then you can expand throughout the rest of the paragraph. Each paragraph should be at least three sentences.

Cite your sources as you go by placing citations immediately after the info you took from a source or after a direct quote. You cannot just put a citation at the end of a long paragraph if it contains both information from a source and your comments. When you use one citation at the end of a paragraph, it looks like everything in the paragraph came from the source.

Direct quotes must have quotation marks around them or, if the quote is 40 or more words, be indented without quotation marks. The quote must also have a proper APA style citation following it. Long quotes are done line this:

Xxxx yyyy zzzz aaaa bbbb qqqq ffff ssss llll gggg, tttt, yyyy and llll. Rrrr hhhh jjjj wwww nnnn dddd mmmm bbbb. Xxxx yyyy zzzz aaaa bbbb qqqq ffff ssss llll gggg, tttt, yyyy and llll. Rrrr hhhh jjjj wwww nnnn dddd mmmm bbbb. Xxxx yyyy zzzz aaaa bbbb qqqq ffff ssss llll gggg and llll. Rrrr hhhh ww nnnn dddd mmmm bbbb. (Moore, 2011)

Notice the period goes before the citation on a block quote. Normally, the period goes after the citation, like this (Moore, 2011).

Please avoid long paragraphs. They are too difficult to follow and it is better to have multiple short paragraphs of three or more sentences, than one long paragraph that extends for a couple pages. Whenever there is a new idea, make a new paragraph.

Level 1 Heading Again

Level 1 does not mean Section one. You can have multiple level 1 headings as they are used to head main topics. Level 2 headings are for sub-topics under level on heading and level 3 headings are sub-sub-topics. You could have multiple level one, multiple level 2 and multiple level 3 headings.

Level 2 Heading

Notice the level headings are bold. Nothing else needs to be in bold in the paper. Just stick with Times New Roman 12 font. Remember, level 2 heading are for a subsection of level 1.

Level 2 Heading

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